Syllabuses
Creating a syllabus on Breakroom for Training allows your team to deliver standardized educational content and administer touchpoints, either on-demand or as part of a supported learning environment.
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Breakroom
Creating a syllabus on Breakroom for Training allows your team to deliver standardized educational content and administer touchpoints, either on-demand or as part of a supported learning environment.
Last updated
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Within the Breakroom for Training system, a syllabus is broadly considered to be an 'activity' like and . However, syllabuses can draw upon those other activities as part of a larger program of instruction, allowing stakeholders to create standardized, semi-automated content modules. These modules can include on-screen annotations and other messages, timers, camera effects, media cues, the execution of custom Lua scripts, and more.
A syllabus can be designated as student-led or Instructor-led. These can be considered synonymous with “single user” and “multi user," as in:
A student-led syllabus is controlled by, and only impacts the user running it.
An instructor-led syllabus is controlled by anyone logged in as an , while everyone else is a passive participant. Any actions from an Instructor-led syllabus impact all users in the Region.
The purpose of a syllabus is to create a structured, guided way for students to experience the course content, and offers the following key features:
Consistency: Regardless of who takes the course, or who teaches it, the content and lesson plan remains the same for each student.
Onboarding: Simplifies onboarding of new Instructors and students to the platform. An Instructor who is competent with the material being presented can quickly take students through the course using the syllabus widget.
Completion: Tracking who has finished a syllabus to the end allows stakeholders to evaluate a student’s progress and see whether they have completed the required materials.
Resiliency: Instructors have the ability to resume classes from any point if the material cannot be completed in a single session. Student-led courses automatically pick up where the student left off if they need to step away.
Building a syllabus on Breakroom for Training is a multi-step process. In the following sections, we will begin by exploring the Dashboard interface and its related control panels, breaking down the creation of syllabus steps and actions in clear terms. We will then create a simple custom syllabus as a tutorial example.
Click on the Learning Management tab, then click on the course you would like to edit.
Click the Create button in the top right corner, and select Syllabus from the drop-down menu.
Enter a name and description for your syllabus.
Click the Syllabus Type toggle to indicate whether you would like the syllabus to be Instructor-led or Student-led.
If you like, you can change the syllabus header by following these steps:
Click the vertical ellipses icon in the upper right corner, and then click Upload Background Image.
Click the Upload Image button to add an image to launch a standard file selection window on your computer. Select the image you want to use, and click Okay.
Alternately, click the "Select from Our Course Image Templates" link to choose a basic color or generic image.
When you are satisfied with your changes, click the Next button.
Once your syllabus is created, you'll be directed to the Syllabus editing panel. Here you will see Steps on the left, and Actions and Annotations for each step on the right. We will review these features in more depth in the following sections.
On / Off toggle
Activates or deactivates the syllabus.
View Syllabus Content
Allows you to view basic syllabus settings without changing them.
Edit Syllabus Content
Allows you to make changes to the syllabus, including adding or deleting steps and actions.
Edit Syllabus Basic Info
Allows you to edit basic syllabus information such as name, description, and type.
Duplicate
Creates a copy of the syllabus in the same course.
Archive
Archives the syllabus without deleting it.
When editing and executing a syllabus, everything revolves around steps. A syllabus contains one or more steps that must be completed to finish the syllabus. The current limit for this is 150 maximum steps.
Steps can also include annotations. Annotations consist of information that is displayed on-screen, and can be any combination of text, an image, and a link that opens an external browser tab. There are separate annotations available for students and Instructors. Instructors can see student annotations if present, but students cannot see Instructor annotations.
All actions execute on each step in the order they are arranged on the Dashboard. Annotations are displayed alongside the first action listed under any given step, and will not be dismissed until the next step is triggered.
The following actions are possible for any given step. Please note that some of these actions require advanced working knowledge of Breakroom customization, including custom scripting.
Camera Perspective: Choose from Behind, Forward, Speaker, Screen, Audience, and Free Look
Channel: The channel parameter provided to Space.Shared.CallBroadcastFunction.
Command: The command parameter provided to Space.Shared.CalBroadcastFunction.
Parameters (Optional): Any extra info to pass to the Space.Share.CallBroadcastFunction call. This can be simple strings, or anything up to including encoded JSON information.
Along with the above information, the other Lua script will receive a variety of metadata including:
Whether it is an Instructor-led syllabus
The ID of the syllabus that called it
The ID of the course that called it
The current step number
A force parameter that translates to “override the ‘already done’ parameter”
An already done parameter which indicates if this step is being repeated, (i.e., perhaps you don’t want to do a repeated step exactly the same as you did the first time)
Whether the current user is in control of the syllabus (i.e., the Instructor in an Instructor-led course, versus being a student)
UI Element: Choose from Microphone, Webcam, Screenshare, Troubleshooting, Ask Question, Emojis, or Raise Hand
Permission:
Quiet: Enables Quiet Mode, disables Audience Mode
Voice Only: Disables Quiet Mode, disables Audience Mode
Full: Disables Quiet Mode, enables Audience Mode
Broadcast Message: Whatever you want the message to say.
Displays a temporary popup message on the screen that fades away after a few seconds.
Target Audience: Choose from User or Everyone. Everyone is only available in Instructor-led courses.
Toast Message: Whatever you want the message to say.
Quiz Name: Select from active quizzes in the same course.
Question Selection: Select “All”, or alternatively, select one or more individual questions. Quizzes can be given in whole or in parts, with the expectation that the other quiz questions will be answered later in the syllabus.
Cancel a quiz. Any late joiners to the class will not be presented with the quiz. It is recommended that you stop quizzes past the point at which it makes sense to allow students to continue working on them.
Quiz Name: Select from active quizzes in the same course. Will do nothing if you didn't begin the quiz on a previous step.
Start a countdown timer that will be visible on screen.
Target Audience: Choose from User or Everyone. Everyone is only available in Instructor-led courses.
Duration: How long the timer runs down, in hours and minutes.
Description: An indication of what the timer is counting down for. Will be displayed as a kind of tooltip when you hover your mouse over the timer.
Start an active waiver that exists in the same course as the syllabus.
Waiver Name: Select the waiver to present to the students or user.
If a Breakroom Tour Camera exists in the region, this will automatically press the ‘Take Tour’ button normally found on the Start Here panel. This works even if the Start Here panel is not present in the region.
No parameters required.
The tour can be aborted by the student by pressing ESC on their keyboard.
Teleport to a different location within the region. This uses the builtin Crowd Manager controls on the Breakroom Conference Tools and operates on the principles.
Target Audience: Choose from User or Everyone. Everyone is only available in instructor-led courses.
Location: Choose from either common locations such as the Auditorium, or from custom locations by picking “Other”. Other locations can be any valid Breakroom voice zone or teleport target. If it shows up under the Crowd Manager in the region controls, then it can also be a location here. This includes the ability to enter ‘multi zone landmarks’ that scatter the students among multiple locations if desired.
Display an uploaded image in a specified location. Images can be uploaded in advance through the Media Library on the dashboard, or uploaded directly through this step.
Image: Select or upload the image to display.
Display Location: Choose from the following options:
Presentation: Display on the main sharing screen in the voice zone. This is the same screen that will normally show webcameras and screenshares. This will appear as another window alongside those, as if someone were sharing it. This may be 2D or 3D depending on whether the user has clicked the ‘see on screen’ button on the Conference Tools.
Screen: Display in separate 2D on the users’ screens as part of an LMS Media window that appears when needed.
Placed: Indicates that the image was placed in the scene already through some other means, such as a Breakroom Image Panel item.
Displays or opens a website URL in the specified location.
Website URL: The website you wish the students to read / view.
Display Location: Choose from the following options:
Screen: Display in a 2D window on the users’ screens as part of an LMS Media window that appears when needed.
Placed: Indicates that the website is visible on a Breakroom Web Browser item already placed separately in the region.
External: Opens the website URL in an external browser tab.
Plays an uploaded video in a specified location. Videos can be uploaded in advance through the Media Library on the dashboard, or uploaded directly through this step.
Video: Select or upload a video. Should be in MP4 format for best results.
Display Location: Choose from the following options:
Presentation: Display on the main sharing screen in the voice zone. This is the same screen that will normally show webcameras and screenshares. This will appear as another window alongside those, as if someone were sharing it. This may be 2D or 3D depending on whether the user has clicked the ‘see on screen’ button on the Conference Tools.
Screen: Display in separate 2D on the users’ screens as part of an LMS Media window that appears when needed.
Placed: Indicates that the image was placed in the scene already through some other means, such as a Breakroom Video Player item.
The following tutorial offers step-by-step instructions for creating a syllabus and setting up related virtual objects in a Region. For this example...
Only and can access the Dashboard.
Breakroom for Training course content is created and managed through the . To add a syllabus to any of your existing , follow these steps.
Navigate to your .
Similar to a or , creating a syllabus will add a syllabus card to the main course screen. In the top right corner of each syllabus card, you'll see a vertical ellipses icon. Clicking on this will open a menu containing editing functions. Here's an overview of the associated UI.
Each step also contains actions. A step will have at least one associated with it, but can have more actions if desired. The current limit is 10 actions per step. All actions execute on each step in the order they are arranged on the Dashboard.
If the user is seated in a Region that contains a , this action will automatically adjust their camera view as if they had pressed the corresponding button. Users can change it back at any time, it is not locked to this view.
This action executes a custom in the Region. This requires that the course designer has placed their own Lua script in the Region with a registered Space.Shared function call that matches the supplied parameters. A Lua script in the Region can do anything the Breakroom . Altering UIs, changing the environment, lighting, adding new objects, moving objects around, playing games, animating models or custom camera views, etc.
Visually indicate a UI button to call student attention to it. This can be useful for orientation periods at the beginning of a class, or to remind students during Q&A periods about the location of the and , etc.
Changes the settings on the current occupied by the person controlling the syllabus. These zone settings are persistent, so they will remain in the last setting chosen until they are changed through the , or a subsequent syllabus step changes them again.
Sends a through the standard messaging feature. The message will be sent as if originating from the primary controller of the syllabus (such as the Instructor).
Starts a . The quiz must be part of the same as the syllabus itself.
This section is written for stakeholders with who are already familiar with customizing the Breakroom platform. If you need help accessing the , or editing the , please consult the linked documentation before proceeding.
